Grabowsky finds three into 50 goes

But now, about to turn 50, Grabowsky is pausing to reflect on
his career and revisit "the music and people that meant a lot to me
over the years".

He came up with the idea of concerts celebrating three milestone
collaborations.

He is reconnecting with singer Shelley Scown  "one of the
most important relationships that I've enjoyed over my whole
career".

They connected in 1986 after he heard her sing at a benefit for
what turned out to be a 10-year collaboration. "Shelley has always
been a musician's singer. She has incredible pitch, incredible
time. She is a real stylist. She has always had the ability to
extract a whole lot more out of songs than simply the melody and
the lyrics without resorting to some of the excesses that a lot of
jazz singers rely on," he says.

Grabowsky kicked off the three concert series last night with a
version of his sextet's from the early 1990s, which recorded the
albums Tee Vee and Viva Viva, with US bassist Ed
Schuller.

It produced some of his best compositions and was his "jazziest"
band, he says.

The third period highlighted is his two-year performing and
writing partnership with Queensland singer Megan Washington. With
her other indie and pop ventures, she "keeps me from going
stale".

Grabowsky's career extends to film and theatre composer, TV host
and arts administrator, which in 2010 will see him direct the
Adelaide Festival.

He insists that "jazz is at the heart of everything I do".

This includes opera but, with film, "the music is tied to
imagery of a certain duration".

He recently wrote the music for the Melbourne Theatre company's
production of Cat On a Hot Tin Roof. The jazz lent itself to
heightening the sexual tension of the play, he says.

His take on what constitutes jazz is that "it is not a fixed
entity", but a process.

It is about "creating a narrative or structure in the
moment".

He says preparations for the Adelaide Festival are quite
advanced. "We've got quite a few big acts or works signed off on,"
he says.

He confirms it will include a big jazz input, international and
local, and a stronger indigenous arts presence.

Music and theatre warrant greater attention, says Grabowsky who
is a festival regular.

"Running a festival like Adelaide is a very responsible
position," he says. "I am not, by nature, reckless."

His aim is to deliver "a challenging and thoroughly entertaining
festival with a very good balance".

Scown shares an interest in the indigenous community with
Grabowsky, who has just completed a tour of the Top End. She
stopped performing four years ago after the challenge waned, to
teach music at the Northland Secondary College.

Trained in classical singing at school, she said performing
original music with Grabowsky, was like "a work in progress".

"There was a sense of embracing chaos that I have, in becoming a
teacher in sometimes bizarrely chaotic circumstances. I realise I
thrive on it."

The Paul Grabowsky Trio performs with Shelly Scown tonight and
his quintet performs with Megan Washington tomorrow night, at
Bennetts Lane in the city at 8.30pm.